


Deception Helps Sometimes

by thecurlymop



Category: The Crimson Field
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-24
Updated: 2014-06-24
Packaged: 2018-03-16 12:30:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3488357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecurlymop/pseuds/thecurlymop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern au: Tom makes up a girlfriend, Kitty needs a fake boyfriend</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The notice is pinned lopsidedly on the board in the staff room:

WINTER BAR CRAWL: ALL STAFF WELCOME, FIRST DRINK FREE BEFORE 8

‘Right, Tom, we’re going.’

‘What? No. I don’t want to go. I hate those kinds of things. I’ll only cramp your style.’

‘Ooh I forgot, you don’t need to go out and find a lady now you’ve got one. When do I get to meet her then?’

Tom sighed. Telling Miles that he had a girlfriend had seemed like a good idea at the time but now the relentless teasing about the lack of romance in his life had turned to relentless chatter about his ‘relationship’. In about two weeks he was planning on announcing their break-up but until then he just had to grit his teeth and ignore any comments Miles made.

‘Well, as you’re spoken for, you’ll have to come along and be my wingman. The ladies will fall for your dazzling sapphire eyes and then when I inform them that you’re actually spoken for, you’re just a terrible flirt, they’ll fall into my arms.’

Tom raises an eyebrow at that but says nothing. Maybe if he just ignores Miles then he won’t be dragged to the bar crawl but really he knows it’s a forlorn hope.

* * *

‘Kitty, get a move onnnn,’ whines Flora.

‘You go on ahead, it’s only the pub down the road after all.’

‘Fine, but you better turn up soon or I’ll come back and get you. I might even bring that cute doctor you’ve been eyeing up, or is it his friend you’d like? Maybe I should being you both?’

‘Flora!’

Rosalie’s scandalised gasp makes Kitty laugh so hard that her lipstick misses her mouth and paints a gash up her cheek. ‘Look what you’ve made me do now,’ she exclaims as she poses in the doorway of her room. ‘You’d better go, you’re only distracting me. I’ll be there in about five minutes, you could even get me a glass of wine if you want.’

She returns to her mirror and tries to remove the lipstick without mucking up any of the rest of her makeup. The other two leave in a clatter of high heels and jangling keys and without them there chattering like magpies (well really that’s only Flora) she is finished in no time at all. The advantage of only going down the road is that she can wear her least comfortable shoes and not have to worry about having to walk very far. She has no intention of staying for the actual pub crawl part, she’ll just have a few drinks and then when they move on, she’ll go home.

As soon as she enters the pub she can see that most of the people there are from the hospital. There’s a disgruntled set of regulars in the far corner and then everyone else is at least vaguely familiar from whole staff meetings and things. Being on the admin side, she does get to see more of a cross section of the hospital staff than most anyway so it’s likely she’ll recognise more people than not.

‘Hello gorgeous,’ she hears, ‘can I get you a drink?’

The speaker is a consultant surgeon known by all female staff as ‘Reginald the creep’ though sadly they have to call him Doctor Yelland to his face. Perhaps if he was told his nickname his behaviour might improve? But she suspects not, he’d probably regard it as a badge of honour.

She moves back so that he can’t peer down her top and looks around for an escape. She can’t see Flora or Rosalie anywhere but over by the bar there are the two nice doctors she occasionally exchanges nods with. She usually sees them together and sort of suspected they were together until she heard the posh one teasing the Scot about his lack of a girlfriend a few months ago. She felt a guilty sense of relief that she wasn’t lusting after an impossibility after that and then in a drunken mistake she still regrets, she confided in Flora, leading to comments like the one earlier being a regular occurrence.

In the second it takes for her to sweep the room for potential rescues, Reginald the creep has slunk up to her again and she swears that his oiliness is creeping over her skin even though he isn’t touching her yet. His gaze moves down appraisingly and she cracks.

‘I’m just, yeah, boyfriend,’ she gabbles as she moves speedily away from him and to the relative safety of the nice doctors. She brushes past the posh one who is going towards the bar and goes straight to the Scot.

‘Just go with it, please,’ she mutters, incredibly close to his face, just before she seals her mouth over his.


	2. Chapter 2

He stands tensely for just a moment and then begins to kiss her back. She pulls away fairly soon and then, just because, she leans back in and brushes her lips over his again.

‘Thanks, sorry for just landing that on you.’

‘It’s alright,’ he murmurs back. The blue blue eyes that have been featuring so heavily in her fantasies are staring right back at her and she loses her train of thought.

‘Tom! Is this her then? Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve been lusting after her for long enough after all!’

The posh one is striding towards them with an appraising look in his eye.

‘Oh shit. Just play along, please. He thinks you’re –'

‘So you’re the girlfriend. I’m Miles but I expect you know that. I’m sure Tom talks about me all the time.’

Miles offers a hand and when she takes it, he pulls her in and brushes his lips against her cheek. She frantically tries to catch up with what’s happening. Miles is the posh one, Tom is the Scot and apparently her new boyfriend. She supposes it could be worse.

Kitty stays with Miles and Tom. Miles keeps her wine glass topped up and so she is fairly happy to quietly play the role of girlfriend when needed but mostly looking for Rosalie and Flora. It’s possible of course that Rosalie has already gone home, she’d really only come because Flora had decided they should and had looked so puppyishly at them that they couldn’t refuse. But Flora should still be here somewhere she thought, craning her neck a little.

‘Are you ok?’ Tom murmurs in her ear.

‘Yes, I’m just looking for my friend, she should be here somewhere.’

‘The chatterbox or the redhead?’ he asks, as if it’s completely normal to know the defining characteristics of her closest friends. She looks at him in astonishment as he blushes, suddenly realising how strange him knowing that might seem to her.

‘I’ve just… I’ve seen you together before. You’ve caught my eye because you all seem very different.’

She feels a wave of sympathy for him. After all, it’s not only him who has been mildly over-interested in someone else’s social life.

‘I’ve wondered that about you and Miles too,’ she whispers. ‘Though I called you the Scot and the Posh one in my head. What did you call me?’

‘Umm…’

Miles has been eavesdropping furiously and at this point he interjects. ‘He called you the beauty.’

‘Really?’ Tom blushes even more and she smiles, leaning forward to kiss him gently. She doesn’t know quite where her ease with doing this has come from, perhaps from the wine Miles keeps handing to her.

‘Urgh, you’re revoltingly sweet. I’m going to find better entertainment.’ Miles gets up and cuffs Tom on the head as he passes.

They watch him leave and then turn back to each other, suddenly aware that before tonight, they had never spoken and now they are sitting very close together with her hand on his thigh and his arm tucked around her waist.

‘I should… well, I should go,’ she says awkwardly.

‘Oh! Right, yes.’ He looks a bit confused about what to do.

‘You could walk me home though? It’s only just around the corner…’ she trails off. Damn it, now he’s going to think she’s propositioning him.

‘Umm alright, just let me –‘

He sends a quick text and then helps her into her jacket before they leave the pub, weaving through the still fairly full bar. Reggie the creep sees her go past and his mouth thins as he registers Tom right behind her, his hand on her back where it had just sort of landed.

They walk in silence along the street, his hand still on her back. She exhales and her breath condenses in a cloud in front of her. She can’t resist doing it again – she’s always loved pretending she was a dragon. Her obvious enjoyment makes him chuckle and then he’s doing it too and for a short time they compete for who can create the biggest cloud.

Then, there they are, by the gate that opens into their front garden. She stops instinctively, taking him by surprise.

‘This is me,’ she gestures awkwardly. ‘So I suppose this is goodbye?’

He looks as if he is mustering up the courage for something and then he says, ‘It doesn’t have to be.’

She must look confused because he rushes to clarify. ‘I mean, this doesn’t have to be the end. We could…maybe… see each other again?’

He looks up hopefully from where he’s been scuffing the toe of his shoe on the pavement. His eyes catch her by surprise again.

‘Yeah… yes, I’d like that,’ she smiles, and his answering smile is breathtaking.

She moves towards him, placing a hand on his arm to balance herself as she leans up to peck him on the cheek but he turns and their lips catch and release gently, sending a pleasant shiver down her spine.

‘Umm, yes, so I’ll see you tomorrow then.’

It’s her turn to be flustered and she almost stumbles as she walks up the uneven path to the door.

He waits until she’s unlocked the door before starting to move away.

‘Until tomorrow,’ he calls softly, smiling as she waves awkwardly.

He grins all the way home.


End file.
